Blue Canyon Selected by NASA to Provide Multiple Spacecraft Buses for HelioSwarm Mission
April 1, 2022 | Business WireEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Small satellite manufacturer and mission services provider Blue Canyon Technologies LLC or "BCT" or "Blue Canyon", a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, was selected to build eight X-SAT Venus ESPA-class microsatellite buses for NASA’s HelioSwarm science mission. The purpose of the mission will be to study the solar wind and space plasma turbulence.
The HelioSwarm mission is a multi-spacecraft observatory that will capture the first multiscale in-space measurements of fluctuations in the magnetic field and motions of solar wind turbulence. Launching in 2028, one hub spacecraft and eight small satellites will move in coordinated orbits as a swarm using a highly elliptical, lunar resonant earth-orbit. In addition to the spacecraft buses, Blue Canyon will integrate the science instrument payloads and perform spacecraft-level environmental testing.
"Blue Canyon's trusted on-orbit product performance allows our customers to focus on payload efforts,” said Stephen Steg, CEO of Blue Canyon Technologies. “The synergy between our spacecraft and component product lines fuels our ability to tailor solutions for each mission’s unique requirements.”
Blue Canyon has been a mission partner in HelioSwarm since 2020 and will deliver the microsatellites in 2026 and 2027. The HelioSwarm Principal Investigator is Dr. Harlan Spence from the University of New Hampshire, providing the science payload, and other partners include Northrop Grumman’s hub spacecraft, and NASA Ames Research Center overseeing project management and mission operations.
Suggested Items
Saab Launches New Initiative to Shape the Future of Defense and Security
04/24/2024 | SaabSaab announces the launch of Skapa by Saab, a new initiative to accelerate the development and deployment of cutting-edge technologies and solutions.
IDTechEx Report Unveils 3D Electronics Status and Opportunities
04/22/2024 | PRNewswire3D electronics is an emerging manufacturing approach that enables electronics to be integrated within or onto the surface of objects. 3D electronic manufacturing techniques empower new features, including mass customizability, greater integration, and improved sustainability in the electronics industry.
Microsoft, Google Join as Sponsors for First-Ever AI Expo for National Competitiveness
04/19/2024 | SCSPThe Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a non-partisan, non-profit project dedicated to strengthening America’s long-term competitiveness in artificial intelligence (AI), announced today two additional sponsors of the AI Expo for National Competitiveness.
Scape Technologies Introduces SCAPE CoCreator at Hannover Messe 2024
04/18/2024 | Scape TechnologiesToday's industrial robotics, 3D Vision, and AI are often confined by costs, complexity, and limited accessibility and usability. Scape Technologies is revolutionizing this field by broadening the horizons of what is possible.
Micron’s Full Suite of Automotive-Grade Solutions Qualified for Qualcomm Automotive Platforms to Power AI in Vehicles
04/17/2024 | MicronMicron Technology, Inc. announced that it has qualified a full suite of its automotive-grade memory and storage solutions for Qualcomm Technologies Inc.’s Snapdragon® Digital Chassis™, a comprehensive set of cloud-connected platforms designed to power data-rich, intelligent automotive services.